The Manhattan District Attorney's office is arguing that former President Donald Trump's criminal case involving hush money payments to adult film star Stormy Daniels should not be moved to federal court because it had nothing to do with Trump's official duties as president.
In a court filing late Tuesday, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, a Democrat, used Trump's own statements against him, citing Trump's 2018 tweets about the hush money payments to Daniels as a "private contract" and "private agreement." The filing also pointed to Trump's then-lawyer Rudy Giuliani saying in 2018 that the payment "was made to resolve a personal and false allegation."
Trump was charged in April with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records over the repayments to then-lawyer Michael Cohen for hush money payments made during the 2016 campaign to women who claimed they had extramarital affairs with Trump, which he denies. Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Earlier this month, Trump's attorneys sought to move the criminal case against Trump from New York into federal court, arguing the Manhattan district attorney's charges against Trump were tied to his duties as president.
But the district attorney's filing urges a federal judge to reject that bid, saying that the payments at question related to his personal business and were made to "conceal criminal conduct that largely occurred before his inauguration."
"The objective of the alleged conduct had nothing to do with defendant's duties and responsibilities as President," the Manhattan district attorney's office wrote. "Instead, the falsified business records at issue here were generated as part of a scheme to reimburse defendant's personal lawyer for an entirely unofficial expenditure that was made before defendant became president."
The motion from Trump's attorneys to move the criminal case out of New York has not paused the case there. Last week, Trump appeared virtually at a hearing in which Judge Juan Merchan read Trump an order about what he can and cannot say publicly about the case and evidence that his legal team will receive from prosecutors to prepare for trial.
At that hearing, Merchan set a trial date of March 25, 2024, potentially setting the trial to occur during the middle of the Republican presidential primary season early next year.
